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PROJECT X ★★

(Cinemax on Comcast) A Pasadena blowout turns into a horny, druggy apocalyptic scene culminating in riot police, news choppers, and a gentleman with a flamethrower. The mayhem echoes footage of the Arab Spring and the 1990s upheaval in South Los Angeles. Here, you see similar destruction and anarchy used to bestow eternal popularity upon one boy (Thomas Mann) and think, ‘‘What a waste.’’ (R; runs through Feb. 28)

Wesley Morris

THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA ★★½

(Encore on Comcast) As terrifyingly cheap-looking B-movie parodies go, this one has its moments. Written and directed by Larry Blamire, its dialogue is clever and the cast winks in fun. If the plot has too much to do without enough reasons to do it, you can’t help rooting for Blamire to flaunt the strings flying the spaceships and animating the titular skeleton. (PG; runs through May 8)

Wesley Morris

DAZED AND CONFUSED ★★★½

(Encore on Comcast) Richard Linklater’s endearing look at a bunch of Texas high schoolers on the last night of school in 1976 is sweet, sad, and spacey as they cruise around toking and joking as if waiting for somebody to show up with cue cards telling them what to do next. Jason London’s star jock and Wiley Wiggins’s entering freshman head a cast of kids who get to you as they try to figure out how to be cool while surrounded by a nothingness that includes their own view of their future. Solving the narrative problem by using an elliptical, semi-documentary style, juggling and cross-cutting characters Altman-style, Linklater has come up with a honey of a high-school movie, up there with “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “American Graffiti,” and “Pump Up the Volume.” (R; runs through March 29)

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